Saturday, April 7, 2012

RvB Small Gang Weekend

A lot of people knock RvB, saying its too blobby and there's no strategy. I totally understand that. This weekend, the RvB leadership decided to do something different: no fleets above one squad (10 pilots). The leadership runs these themed weekends pretty often. A couple of the usual flavors are Kitchen Sink (anything goes) and Serendipitous (T1 Cruiser and below, no faction or T2). This was the first go at the small fleet weekend, and its been a blast.

The norm at RvB is to jump into a large fleet and smash into each other. That's all well and good, but it can actually turn into a game of "What ship should I bring so that I don't get primaried but I'm still effective." This small fleet weekend was totally different. With gangs of no more than 10 rolling around the home systems, every pilot mattered. With such small gangs, EWAR and ship selection becomes really important. With all electronic warfare, its great in small gangs, but it doesn't necessarily scale too well. In these gangs, we used tracking disruptors quite a bit. We also used some unconventional fittings, such as gank Mallers fit with blasters. I was on for a pretty long duration of the night and it was a blast.

I hope RvB continues this event, and I believe that they will. More people can FC, more people matter, and thinking differently matters. Tonight wasn't about just DPS, tank, follow fleet instructions. It was about full small gang operation. It was great to see 2-4 small fleets going out for either side. There was also more people going out and trying some solo Pvp as well. I loved the theme, and its definitely here to stay in RvB.